Volunteers are the heartbeat of the local church. Without them, the efforts of every church would simply collapse into inefficiency and failure. Exodus 18:13-23 describes Moses surrounded by people all day long. Morning to night, he spent all his time helping people. Wow! As a pastor, that feels oddly familiar. However, one day Moses’ father-in-law Jethro told him (in my words), “Hey, this isn’t good. You need help, so train some folks to help you.” What amazing advice!
“You Need Help.”
You see, Moses had become the bottleneck, like on a highway when traffic merges to a single lane, and everything slows down. If we want to grow as a church, we must grow people to do the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:!2). I was once told you can have control, or you can have growth, but you cannot have both.
To become a fully functioning body, we must take the focus off a few and put the ministry into the hands of many. Then, the bottleneck is broken, and real growth can take place, both spiritually and numerically. Isn’t that what we have been called to do? Train disciples who train more disciples to go and tell others about Jesus.
Hope Versus Guilt
At The Springs Church, serving is part of our DNA and culture. It is an expectation repeated often, but we never want to get on stage and “guilt” people into serving. We’ve all heard the saying,“What you get them with is what you keep them with.” Guilt is a horrible master, and people who begin serving out of guilt will one day stop serving because their motivation was misplaced. Honor your team by sharing the “why” behind service. Make it clear in your recruiting that serving is what Jesus did on earth, and serving is what He has called His people to do.
When we use guilt to fill needed roles, we send a message of desperation, but when Jesus is lifted high, and people see what God is doing, they will join your team motivated by hope. Think about the mom who is saved because her children are being cared for in the nursery. Or the outsider who now serves in the children’s wing because he or she was welcomed and feels a true sense of belonging. Hope brings the most amazing volunteers you have ever met!
Honor in Action
We must also honor our volunteers. So love them as souls and not as worker bees. The average lifespan of a worker bee is around six weeks. (That might be close to the average “lifespan” of a church nursery volunteer.) I was told long ago, “People do not care what you know until they know that you care.” So love them and let them know you love them.
You will not only lose people as volunteers, but also as church members if you only treat them as worker bees.
Honor them by seeing and acknowledging their God-given potential. Some of my best volunteers felt they had no place or were unworthy to serve on the team. By having conversations, listening to what God is doing in their lives, and discovering what they love to do, we get to know them and find a good fit for them.
Sometimes, we have to see what Jesus sees when He looks at them, and perhaps things they do not even see in themselves. We also honor them by praying for them to grow spiritually. We must pray for God to work in lives, to save them and call them to fulfill His plan for them. We also honor them when we free them to lead. If people are simply commodities to get things done, they will never move from participants to owners. We must free volunteers to lead and allow them to dream, make changes, and create.
Perhaps the greatest way we honor our team is by allowing them to make mistakes. People are going to make mistakes! Use those moments to teach, not to “bring down the hammer.” Anytime I have made a mistake in ministry, I beat myself up; I don’t need help. When people make mistakes, help your team members analyze, learn, and move on.
Many years ago, my youth pastor called to tell me the fire department and police were evacuating the Twin Peaks Veterinary clinic next door. My heart rate went through the roof! I said, “Why are they there?”
He said, “We set the fire alarm off using the smoke machine during a youth group party.”
I could tell he was nervous about how I would respond. When I arrived, he already had apologized, and I did too (and gave them free church merchandise). Then, I went to talk to him. I said, “Man, what did you learn?”
He replied, “Well…not to use a smoke machine!”
I laughed with him and said, “Sounds like you learned your lesson; shake it off and go have fun! Twenty years from now, your students may not remember what you preached, but they will never forget this night!”
Finally, we honor our team by letting them be who God created them to be. We are created uniquely with different personality styles, strengths, and weaknesses. We help people serve by allowing them to live how God created them. At The Springs Church, that may mean someone tries serving in an area that’s not the best fit. They know we want them to tell us if it’s not working.
Locking people into volunteer roles without flexibility means, after a while, they may quit in frustration. We must encourage openness about changing volunteer roles. Also recognize that during certain seasons of life — financial stressors, illness, pregnancy, caregiving — people need a break. We can’t take it personally; it’s not about us. If our volunteers know they can talk and we will listen, it gives them grace to take needed breaks. They come back later and get involved again. By giving them space, we leave the door open.
Celebrate Good Times!
Honor your team and love them well and often! At The Springs Church, we praise our volunteers, but we do more than talk. We hang up signs thanking them. We give them small gifts and gift cards throughout the year. We provide coffee, drinks, and snacks for them. Weekly, our staff goes through every area of the facility to greet volunteers and thank them personally.
We also hold an annual volunteer appreciation dinner to honor them and celebrate all God has done through them that year. We have a big meal hosted and served only by church staff — no volunteer help! They are the VIPs that night. We have fun skits or Christian comedians or entertainers, and we give away prizes! Never underestimate the excitement when you announce there are prizes! At the heart of the event, we express sincere appreciation for all they have done.
We want people to be generous with their time, talents, and treasures. This is an opportunity for the church to give back to the most generous people they have — volunteers! We make sure they know they are seen, that what they do matters to us. Without volunteers, we cannot effectively do what God has called us to do. We want them to feel energized, appreciated, and part of the team, because they are! Volunteers are an integral part of the Body of Christ, and we are family serving Him as one.
About the Columnist: Jeff Goodman is the founding pastor of The Springs Church in Marana, Arizona. He ministered in North Carolina and Georgia before moving to Arizona in 2010. A NAM church plant, The Springs Church reached self-supporting in January 2020.
